Chris Froome was booed in Yellow Jersey rival Romain Bardet’s back yard – but produced a stunning fightback to preserve his lead on the Tour de France , writes Mike Walters in Le Puy-de-Velay .

Froome looked like he would lose the leader’s maillot jaune when he suffered a broken spoke around 25 miles from home, moments after Bardet attacked. But his Polish wingman, Michal Kwiatkowski, saved the day by stopping to help change his back wheel in barely 30 seconds —proving you can’t get quicker than a Kwiat-Fit fitter.

Then, Britain’s three-times champion had to run the gauntlet of boozy fans on the Col de Peyra Taillade giving him the bird, and caught Bardet before he could abscond over the summit, after a lung-bursting effort where he learned “a lot of new words” from the galleries.

Sacre bleu! Froome crossed the line with his overnight 18-second lead unscathed, a stupendous effort.

Sacre boo! He had no complaints about his reception at the roadside, insisting it all goes with the territory.

Sacre chew! And Froome still expects the battle for the Yellow Jersey to be a nail-biter, going right down to next Saturday’s time trial in Marseille. The top four are still separated by just 29 seconds.

Shattered Froome said: “There’s never a dull moment on this Tour — I had to change my back wheel and it couldn’t have come at a worse time. I’m just grateful that Michal stopped to give me his back wheel and my team-mates all dropped back to help pace me back to the group containing my main rivals.

“That was extremely stressful and chaotic – panic stations.

“I’m just happy to have got through it without any major losses, but I’m going to pass out tonight. I’m knackered!”

Froome joked Sunday's stage expanded his French vocabulary as fans gave him stick (Image: AFP/Getty)

Froome, who lost the Yellow Jersey to Fabio Aru in the Pyrenees last Thursday but regained it 48 hours later in Rodez, shrugged off his hostile reception from the roadside.

In fairness, mere verbals is an improvement on being spat at, having urine chucked over him and a team-mate punched – which was Froome’s lot two years ago.

Good old marginal gains, eh?

But he was being charitable to les oiks on the Peyra Taillade when he said: “This was Bardet’s home stage, if you like, and it is only to be expected that the crowds would get behind him.

“The reception on the roads has been fantastic this year and the French riders have animated the race. It’s great that the fans are getting so involved, and they are teaching me a lot of new words!”

Stage 15, a tricky 118-mile stretch from Laissac-Severac L’Eglise to Le Puy-en-Velay, was won by Dutchman Bauke Mollema after his solo breakaway for the last 20 miles.

Mollema broke away and stayed away to be first over the line in Le Puy-en-Velay (Image: Getty)

But the real intrigue was back in the Yellow Jersey group, where Team Sky worked ferociously to cover multiple attacks, and Ireland’s Birmingham-born Dan Martin was the only general classification contender to trim Froome’s lead.

Martin, now fifth overall 1min 12sec behind, said: “Chris is the only guy who could come back from a mechanical in that situation. AG2R were flying, and everybody was already in the red, but I’m happy he came back. You don’t want the Tour decided like that.”

Monday is the final rest day before the peloton heads back towards the Alps.